written on Tuesday, June 2, 2009
I heard in the PA chat that the Nintendo press conference was a horrible failure. But they announced New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and a 2D / 3D Metroid sequel from Team Ninja (formerly the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden developers). Sure, only the first one will actually be out this year... :P
Sony's press conference was also called a horrible failure, but I'm not so sure. They announced that Final Fantasy 14 (13 isn't even out yet) will be an MMO exclusive to the PS3. Also Rockstar North will be developing some game called Agent exclusively for the PS3. Plus there's the Team Ico game, God of War 3, and Uncharted 2. Only Uncharted 2 will be out this year, but it seems like Sony finally realized that exclusive games matter. I wonder how much they spent.
Everyone has motion controls / upgrades now. Nintendo has Motion Plus coming out this summer. Microsoft and Sony have both announced their competing solutions. Microsoft has stereo cameras with voice recognition so you don't need a controller. Sony has a prototype wand controller that's basically a Wiimote. Both look like they've got a ways to go before becoming commercial products. Plus no price cut was announced for the PS3, so even if their solution was perfect and shipped yesterday, who would care?
Moreover, I have no faith that developers will use these devices well. They've had years to develop anything interesting using the Wiimote and largely failed. I think they're too set in their ways.
That's it for the press conferences. Now it's an avalanche of individual press outlets getting their hands on every game at the show in no particular order. I'll mostly just wait for the podcasts to start listening to what people thought really stood out. By and large, I was pretty amazed at how little everyone had to show that was actually coming out this year. 2010 sounds far more interesting than 2009.
Showing posts with label E3 2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E3 2009. Show all posts
03 June, 2009
02 June, 2009
E3 2009: Just Cause 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Microsoft Conference
written on Monday, May 1, 2009
A lot of trailers came out just before E3, trying to be heard above the din of the actual event. But apparently they waited for the day of to release the Just Cause 2 trailer. While not as completely insane as Neo Contra, the game is delightfully absurd. There's plenty of vehicle hijacking, parachuting, and stuff blowing up. It brought a smile to my face.
Valve announced a sequel to Left 4 Dead, due out this year. That seems awfully quick, especially for Valve. Also, the Rock Paper Shotgun preview has some interesting tidbits. I'm most interested in the pacing changes.
The old game had Crescendo events where you had to hunker down and survive an onslaught. L4D2 (R2D2's brother?) now has Gauntlet events where zombies only come from one direction, but it's exactly where you need to go. (Insert salmon analogy here.) And the director can now change the layout of certain parts of the level. That could be nice. Although historically, randomly generated levels have always felt randomly generated. :P
Microsoft made their standard play for the Wii demographic. They've got a motion sensing camera now. They're adding internet radio, improving their Netflix capabilities a bit, and adding Facebook and Twitter support, allowing people to post screen shots from new games that bother to support it. I've seen Microsoft make this play so many times, part of me wants them to succeed just so they'll give it a bit of a rest. They wouldn't of course. E3 is the only gaming event mainstream media even knows about, so it's where announcements for broader audiences get made.
It's probably also worth mentioning that they're planning to have digital distribution of full games starting in August. All the initial titles are over a year old, so retailers shouldn't instantly revolt. It looks like the next logical step.
Oh, and Red Steel 2 looks promising. I am tentatively pleased. :)
A lot of trailers came out just before E3, trying to be heard above the din of the actual event. But apparently they waited for the day of to release the Just Cause 2 trailer. While not as completely insane as Neo Contra, the game is delightfully absurd. There's plenty of vehicle hijacking, parachuting, and stuff blowing up. It brought a smile to my face.
Valve announced a sequel to Left 4 Dead, due out this year. That seems awfully quick, especially for Valve. Also, the Rock Paper Shotgun preview has some interesting tidbits. I'm most interested in the pacing changes.
The old game had Crescendo events where you had to hunker down and survive an onslaught. L4D2 (R2D2's brother?) now has Gauntlet events where zombies only come from one direction, but it's exactly where you need to go. (Insert salmon analogy here.) And the director can now change the layout of certain parts of the level. That could be nice. Although historically, randomly generated levels have always felt randomly generated. :P
Microsoft made their standard play for the Wii demographic. They've got a motion sensing camera now. They're adding internet radio, improving their Netflix capabilities a bit, and adding Facebook and Twitter support, allowing people to post screen shots from new games that bother to support it. I've seen Microsoft make this play so many times, part of me wants them to succeed just so they'll give it a bit of a rest. They wouldn't of course. E3 is the only gaming event mainstream media even knows about, so it's where announcements for broader audiences get made.
It's probably also worth mentioning that they're planning to have digital distribution of full games starting in August. All the initial titles are over a year old, so retailers shouldn't instantly revolt. It looks like the next logical step.
Oh, and Red Steel 2 looks promising. I am tentatively pleased. :)
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